I felt so old booting up this game. Super Mario Kart was one of my first introductions to the gaming world when I was first able to pick up a controller. It was amazing to play this game again and be able to actively compare it to the latest installment of the Mario Kart series, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which was the most prominent game we played this past summer.

This game was familiar to me when we turned it on. The music especially caught my attention, though I’ll admit I barely remember playing it. I wasn’t even born when the game was originally released. In fact, I think the only reason I recognized any of the levels was because Nintendo remakes them from newer Mario Kart games.

Super Mario Kart is a simple racing game. You use the D-pad to steer and the buttons to either accelerate, brake, or throw items at opponents in an attempt to sabotage them. Super Mario Kart was also the installment that enabled you to “hop” rather than drift around corners.

You make it sound so easy. While I didn’t find myself steering the controller itself, I wished I was able to. The controls are simple enough, but I couldn’t drive straight to save my life. I gave up on hopping quickly after I jumped right off the stage a couple of times. Most of the levels have a lot of twists and turns to them as well making it hard to remain on the pathway.

This game was definitely harder than I remember it being, but then I began to wonder if it’s because the newer Mario Kart games became easier. Super Mario Kart has limited control options while the newer installments are customizable to fit a player’s preference. Not only that, but it seemed as if the computer opponents were more difficult. There were multiple times where an NPC Yoshi would be chucking eggs at us on the course when eggs weren’t an available item to us from the item blocks. Yoshi seemed to have an endless supply of them, as well (which, for the character, makes a little sense, but it seemed like cheating for a race!).

The NPC characters were brutal, I agree. Though I can’t complain because it made for a nice challenge. What shocked me was that you have lives in the game. If you get below fourth place, you lose a life. After you lose three, you’re out of the game. There were quite a few times Kris had to finish the cup for us because I kept getting a game over. It made for some good laughs if anything else.

The graphics and music are such throwbacks to the past! Compared to games nowadays, the graphics aren’t up to par, but I think the game aged rather well. The graphics are enough to paint the scene and let you follow the road well enough to keep going with the race.

The game is very bright and colorful. The sprites are hilarious to look at. The characters look as though they were stuffed into karts that are ten-times too small for them. Still, it works.

The music was very nostalgic as well, but there obviously wasn’t a different tune for every race nor a variety of instruments, if you will, due to the computer-generated tunes. Still, the music did it’s job as always, making you raring to go as a race started up.

That music will stay with me forever. No, there wasn’t much of a variety, but it was still catchy. It’s the kind of music that I could hear randomly and say, “That’s from Mario Kart.”

Like the rest of the series, Super Mario Kart has several cups for the grand prix races as well as a handful of different characters for players to try out. It’s a good challenge to best your high scores and win the gold trophy in every match of races, giving the game decent replay value.

I have to play this game again. I need some serious practice.

Super Mario Kart gets…4 out of 5 lives.

Have you played this game? What did you think? Let us know in the comments!

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14 thoughts on “Super Mario Kart [Game Review]”

Omgggggg! So my friend Emily just found one of these after searching forever a few weeks ago and we played Super Mario Kart last week. Video games back in the day were so much harder, we kept flying off the tracks until we got used to the controls. This game was super awesome and so much fun to play again! Thanks for the review!

Dusted of my version after reading this review and I forgot how hard it was to turn a corner! I’m pounding the shoulder button for all its worth and I’m still drifting into barriers! Good fun though and good to see Nintendo improved it over the years, but never deviated too far from the original.